在与十几名证人进行了一周的公开听证会后，众议院民主党人表示，他们可能准备好进入对唐纳德·特朗普总统的弹劾调查的下一阶段。
民主党高层表示，他们的目标是在年底前投票决定是否弹劾特朗普。但是众议院需要采取几个步骤，这个问题才能提交给参议院，参议院将负责起诉总统。
众议院议长南希·佩洛西在周四的每周新闻发布会上证实，调查远未结束。尽管佩洛西拒绝给出确切的时间表，但她告诉记者，审判分庭将“走到事实带我们去的地方”
“我们还没有结束，这一天还没有结束，”佩洛西说。她还抨击她的共和党同事继续支持特朗普:“所有这一切的可悲悲剧是总统的行为和共和党人对这种行为的辩护。”
总统努力敦促乌克兰总统沃洛迪米尔·泽林斯基开始调查前副总统乔·拜登和他的儿子亨特，以及2016年的选举，促使民主党在9月下旬发起调查。经过数周的私下调查，众议院在上周举行了公开弹劾听证会，将调查转移到公众的视野中。
特朗普回应弹劾调查的最新进展，呼吁狐狸和朋友星期五。特朗普在电话中称，他不认识在弹劾调查中作证的许多证人，如库尔特·沃尔克和戈登·桑德兰。
总统还表示，他希望进行弹劾审判，在此审判中，他可以质询众议员亚当·希夫、亨特·拜登和举报者，他们对特朗普7月25日与泽兰斯基的电话投诉启动了弹劾调查。
以下是你需要知道的下一步会发生什么:
会有更多的公开听证会吗？
目前众议院的日程上不再有公开听证会，也不清楚是否会有更多的官员被传唤作证。
周四，佩洛西建议可能会有更多的官员被传唤公开作证，但没有详细说明是谁或什么时候。她只是告诉记者，你“永远不知道一个人的证词会导致需要另一个人的证词。”
委员会还没有听到特朗普核心圈子中的一些关键证人的消息，如前国家安全顾问约翰博尔顿或代理白宫幕僚长米克马尔瓦尼。但是白宫可能会阻止这些官员参与调查，佩洛西说，她不会等到法院裁定他们是否应该被迫作证。
众议院委员会举行的七次公开听证会提供了特朗普政府与乌克兰打交道的更多细节。听证会披露的最大信息之一是，确认了一项交换协议，将白宫访问与乌克兰总统宣布特朗普要求的调查联系在一起。
弹劾程序的下一步是什么？
如果众议院情报委员会决定不再举行公开听证会，该委员会的下一步就是编写一份调查报告。该委员会的主要民主党人希夫将负责起草该文件。
该报告随后将提交给众议院司法委员会，由该委员会决定是否提出针对特朗普的弹劾条款。众议院司法委员会主席杰瑞·纳德勒9月初说，他个人认为总统“应该被弹劾”
“我们必须表明，这种行为——破坏宪法，破坏所有保障民主政府的准则，扩大总统权力，破坏权力分立，从而导致总统越来越成为暴君，是不能容忍的。它不能正常化，”纳德勒告诉WNYC。
总统可能面临的潜在指控包括贿赂、滥用权力、蔑视国会和妨碍司法。滥用权力指控可能源于特朗普与乌克兰的交往，而妨碍司法公正或蔑视国会可能源于白宫拒绝遵守相关文件和证人证词的传票。
唐纳德·特朗普总统于11月20日抵达得克萨斯州奥斯汀的奥斯汀-博格斯特伦国际机场时，离开空军一号。众议院仍在对特朗普与乌克兰的交易进行弹劾调查。
弹劾投票什么时候能举行？
众议院可能还需要几周时间才能准备好就是否弹劾特朗普进行全票表决。
由于感恩节假期，国会下周不会开会。当他们在12月初回到国会山时，在举行投票之前还有几个步骤要完成。众议院情报委员会需要提交报告，众议院司法委员会必须起草弹劾条款。
尽管如此，该党领导人表示，他们希望在2020年前举行投票。众议院司法委员会的民主党议员瓦尔·戴明斯说，告诉政客所有与弹劾相关的程序都有可能在12月底之前在众议院完成。
“在圣诞节前把它都打包，这难道不是一份很棒的圣诞礼物吗？我认为这是非常可能的，”戴明斯说。
审判的可能性有多大？
共和党人如果投票驳回指控(共和党在众议院拥有53对47的多数席位)，技术上可以立即中止诉讼程序，但多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔表示，他们将允许审判继续进行。
麦康奈尔上周告诉记者，“我自己的观点是，我们应该给人们一个立案的机会。”。“关于持续多长时间的问题，这实际上取决于参议院。人们将不得不总结，他们正在学习新的东西吗？总有一天，我们会走到尽头。”
根据a报告从华盛顿邮报，白宫和共和党人正寻求将弹劾审判限制在两周内。
如果弹劾调查确实进入参议院进行审判，这将是美国历史上第三次——在安德鲁·约翰逊和比尔·克林顿之后——该机构将不得不考虑是否将总统从白宫免职。如果特朗普没有被定罪，审判将结束，他将继续留任。
HERE'S WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT IN THE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP
After a week of public hearings with a dozen witnesses, House Democrats have signaled that they may be ready to move onto the next stage in their impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
Top Democrats have said they aim to vote on whether to impeach Trump by the end of the year. But the House of Representatives will need to take several steps before the issue can move on to the Senate, which will be responsible for prosecuting the president.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed that the probe is far from over during her weekly press conference on Thursday. While Pelosi declined to give an exact timeline, she told reporters that the chamber will "go where the facts take us."
"We aren't finished yet, the day is not over," Pelosi said. She also slammed her Republican colleagues for continuing to stand by Trump: "The sad tragedy of all of this is the behavior of the president and the defense of that behavior by the Republicans."
The president's efforts to press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to start investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as the 2016 election, prompted Democrats to launch the inquiry in late September. After weeks of private investigation, the House moved the probe into the public eye by holding public impeachment hearings this past week.
Trump responded to the latest developments in the impeachment inquiry by calling into Fox & Friends on Friday. During his call, Trump claimed he doesn't know a number of the witnesses who have testified in the impeachment inquiry, such as Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland.
The president also said he would like an impeachment trial in which he could question Representative Adam Schiff, Hunter Biden and the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy launched the impeachment probe.
Here's everything you need to know about what will happen next:
Will there be more public hearings?
There are no more public hearings on the House's schedule as of right now and it's unclear if more officials will be called to testify.
On Thursday, Pelosi suggested that more officials may be called to publicly testify but didn't elaborate on who or when. She simply told reporters that you "never know what testimony of one person may lead to the need for testimony of another."
The committee hasn't heard from some key witnesses in Trump's inner circle, like former National Security Adviser John Bolton or acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. But the White House would likely block these officials from participating in the probe, and Pelosi said she won't wait for a court to rule on whether they should be forced to testify.
The seven public hearings held by the House committee provided even more details on the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine. One of the biggest revelations to come from the hearings was the confirmation of a quid pro quo agreement linking a White House visit in exchange for Ukraine's president announcing the investigations requested by Trump.
What are the next steps of the impeachment process?
If the House Intelligence Committee decides not to hold any more public hearings, the next step for the panel is to compile a report of its investigation. Schiff, the leading Democrat on the committee, will be responsible for drafting that document.
The report would then be submitted to the House Judiciary Committee, which will decide whether or not to bring forward articles of impeachment against Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said in early September that he personally believed the president "ought to be impeached."
"We have to show that this kind of behavior—trashing the Constitution, trashing all the norms which guarantee democratic government, aggrandizing power to the presidency and destroying the separation of powers and thereby leading the president to become more and more of a tyrant cannot be tolerated. And it cannot be normalized," Nadler told WNYC.
The potential charges that the president could face include bribery, abuse of power, contempt of Congress and obstruction of justice. The abuse of power charges could stem from Trump's dealings with Ukraine while obstruction of justice or contempt of Congress could result from the White House's refusal to comply with subpoenas for related documents and witness testimony.
President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, Texas on November 20. The House of Representatives is still conducting an impeachment inquiry against Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.
When could an impeachment vote happen?
It will likely take a few more weeks before the House is ready to hold a full floor vote on whether to impeach Trump.
Congress will not be in session next week thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday. When they return to Capitol Hill in early December, there will still be several steps to complete before holding a vote. The House Intelligence Committee will need to submit its report and the House Judiciary Committee will have to draw up articles of impeachment.
Still, party leaders have expressed that they want to hold a vote before 2020. Rep. Val Demings, a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Politico that it may be possible for all impeachment-related proceedings to be finished in the House by late December.
"Wouldn't that be a great Christmas gift for it to all wrap up by Christmas? I think it's very possible," Demings said.
What is the likelihood of a trial?
Republicans could technically cut off the proceedings immediately if they vote to dismiss the charges (the GOP hold a 53 to 47 majority in the chamber) but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated that they will allow the trial to move forward.
"My own view is that we should give people an opportunity to put the case on," McConnell told reporters last week. "On the issue of how long it goes on, it's really kind of up to the Senate. People will have to conclude, are they learning something new? At some point, we'll get to an end."
According to a report from The Washington Post, the White House and Republicans are looking to limit an impeachment trial to two weeks.
If the impeachment probe does make its way to the Senate for a trial, it would be just the third time in U.S. history—after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton—that body would have to consider whether to remove a president from the White House. If Trump is not convicted, the trial ends and he remains in office.
